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Thursday, 4 March 2010

Review: Good Dog, Bad Dog by Dave Shelton

Kirk Bergman and Duncan McBoo are pedigree police: the finest canine cops in all Muttropolis. And they're never short of work. The city is heaving with cunning crooks and malevolent mongrels who would sell their own mother for a bone. Join our dog detectives as they chase leads, sniff out crime, collar the bad guys and generally get their teeth into adventures full of action, suspense and ...milkshakes. Criminals beware: McBoo and Bergman are on your tail!

Good Dog, Bad Dog is the first release in the new DFC Library collection that I blogged about a couple of days ago and it is unlike any of the other graphic novels I have read recently, such as Hellboy, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Defoe 1666, to name but a few. Good Dog, Bad Dog is far more in keeping with the comics I read as a kid; comics like the Beano, Whizzer and Chips and The Dandy. I never saw The DFC when it was around but everything I am now reading about it suggests that it was very much like these comics, as well the annuals such as Lion and Hotspur that I have gradually managed to pick up over the years. These annuals contained strips that were full of action and adventure, alongside stories that were pure comedy and Good Dog, Bad Dog is very much in the same vein as the latter and would certainly have sat well in any of these classic comics.

The DFC Library website offers a wonderfully comic analogy for Good Dog, Bad Dog: "imagine a Bogart and Bacall movie recast with Laurel and Hardy. Dressed in dog suits. That's not really quite what Good Dog, Bad Dog is like but still, imagine." No.... not quite what the story is like, but not far off. It is a brilliant homage to the classic noir detective movies, and pretty much every cop buddy movie going, and it is laced throughout with snappy dialogue and one-liners that will make you laugh out loud.

Dave Shelton's artwork is enhanced by the beautiful presentation of the book. The bright colours on the glossy hardback cover hit you straight between the eyes, and the inside of the book is just as impressive - 64 full colour pages of Dave's doggy detective drawings should make this a hit with comic love kids everywhere. Here is just one example of Mr Shelton's work from his website:

Good Dog, Bad Dog is published on 4th March and I feel it deserves to be a big success, as do the other two DFC Library books due to be released over the next couple of months (watch this space as reviews will be coming soon). You will have a chance to win some of these titles sometime during this month.

4 comments:

Hi what is your opinion for manga? I myslf enjoy manga however when there have been adaptions of books into manga (eg cirque du freak) I think it's the wrong choice. With graphic novels the story is as important as the pictures. However with Manga the pictures are what holds the story together. A normal story has to have a lot of errrrr… story to it. So with cirque du freak although undeniably a great book lacks the use of images (eg action) to produce a good manga novel… For what is a simple question I have rambled on. Sorry about that!

Dave Shelton pike with this master piece. This comic really overcame my expectations, principally with the interesting dialogues and the adaptation realized to use human characteristics in animals. It really shocked me, positively of course.

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Unless stated otherwise all book synopses (in italics at the beginning of each review) are taken from goodreads.com, amazon.co.uk or amazon.com. All books reviewed have been bought by myself unless stated otherwise.